


Errant Influence

by Valdasine



Category: Homestuck, Young Wizards - Diane Duane
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2011-07-12
Updated: 2011-07-12
Packaged: 2017-10-21 07:28:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/222487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Valdasine/pseuds/Valdasine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A Young Wizards/Homestuck crossover. The Homestuck kids go planet-hopping in search of a break - and instead get embroiled in another fight against the Lone Power. This time, alongside a certain twelve trolls, they face It and Its plot to decimate the Alternian population. Cue much bickering, spells, and a close examination of the trolls' upper echelon.<br/>[On indefinite hiatus. Don't expect anything here.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Errant Influence

Four humans stood on a platform high above the earth, their faces and bodies frozen in horror. They were witnessing a slaughter, and there was nothing they could do to stop it and no spell in their arsenals that would change a culture's fondness for unwarranted executions. The four humans – children, really, not one of them could even pass sixteen – watched as the gray people down below were systematically killed one by one, for no apparent reason other than blood color.

Rose's mouth was the first to snap shut, and she was the first to sit back and pull out her manual1. She had skimmed the culture section on the planet before transit, but apparently closer inspection was needed. She flipped through the pages to the now much larger section on Alternia and began reading. Jade joined her soon enough, but her hands shook as she turned the pages.

“Guys... I already don't like this place and I wanna go home... whose idea was this?” she asked quietly.

“Yours, Harley,” came a slow drawl from the edge of the platform.

“Oh. Right... can we go somewhere else now?”

Dave, too, was recovering quickly from the shock – after all, he had seen death before. They all had. Most wizards became hardened to death during their Ordeal, and those that didn't risked losing their mind and their Art. But even in the recent war against the Lone Power2, the kids had seen nothing like this wholesale slaughter. John was the last to recover, and he shakily joined the girls in the center of the platform. He didn't pull out his manual, though, or even speak. He just stared at his sneakers.

“John,” Rose began calmly. “You seem awfully shaken by this. While it is admittedly extreme, it's not particularly surprising given all that we've seen. It's clearly the Lone Power's work. You know this, right?”

He nodded tentatively, then looked beyond his sneakers through the mottled gray chunk of air supporting them. Below, he could see that the bodies had been cleared, leaving a grotesque splatter painting of rust reds and sunset oranges and sunshine yellows, jolting the otherwise dull landscape with bursts of color. John looked up and nodded again, this time more firmly.

“I know. But that doesn’t make it okay! I’m really sorry, Jade, but I want to stay. Maybe we came here for a reason after all. What’s our status in the manual?”

“Errantry,” came the quick reply. “It appears our intended planet-hopping has become unintended planet-saving.”

“But it was my idea to take a break! I mean, I guess it was. It sure didn't seem like it came from the Powers That Be. We just got over that huge battle! I can't believe They put us on errantry again.” Jade was pouting, which wasn't very typical of her and spoke volumes on how uncomfortable she was on such a violent planet.

In response, Dave let out a noise that could almost qualify as a sigh, though he was too cool to sigh. He made his way into the center of the platform and stood over them, shoulders hunched, hands tucked in pockets, shades glinting. “C'mon Harley. You know it don't work that way. The Powers think we're way too cool to need breaks, and obviously They gave you the great idea to go exploring our arm of the galaxy. And look at us now, on a planet full of murder-happy gray people that leave a modern artist’s wet dream in their wake.”

“Goodness, Strider. Innuendo at the most inappropriate of times. Does your brother also take such a cavalier attitude towards death? The behavior of your guardian would explain so much of your own actions.” Rose gave a slight smile, knowing all too well that Dave's Bro was just as crass as he was.

“Sheesh, Lalonde. I thought you left the therapist chair at home. The stench of psychoanalysis this way comes. And at 'the most inappropriate of times'. Egbert, Harley, help, make it stop!” Dave pretended to grab at Jade in distress, but the farce never reached his face.

Jade let out a reluctant giggle before turning back to her manual. “So I guess since we're on errantry, we have to stay and help these... trolls? Is that what they call themselves? Why are the trolls killing each other, anyway?”

Rose shrugged serenely. The Alternian culture was intriguing to her rather than appalling. “I'm not sure. I read a few things about 'culling' practices, but nothing like this. And I believe you are correct, we do need to stay. On an _sevarfrith_ 3planet, no less. You may want to talk to Becquerel about that, by the way. I'm aware he can take care of himself, but I do worry about him causing an interplanetary incident.”

“Ha,” Dave interjected. “Oh yeah. I can see the headlines now in the Crossings. 'Radioactive canine causes interplanetary war'.”

“Dave! That was not very nice. You know Bec wouldn't do anything like that. He's a good dog!” Jade was quick to protest, fists clenched and eyes flaring, but just as quick to simmer down when she realized he was joking.

“Yeah, but remember that time when we were off-planet for the pullulus? If it weren't for that weird leash thing of yours...” John teased, his wide grin appearing in full force.

“Hey! You know that wasn't his fault!”

Down below, unnoticed by the young wizards, a small group of trolls was gathering at the site of the slaughter. They were shorter and lankier than the ones from before, though the last troll to stumble through the transit wizardry was a least a head taller than any of the others. Soon Dave's sensitive ears picked up on trollish arguing on the ground, and at his motion, the four kids were leaning over the edge again, watching curiously as events unfolded – but to their dismay, they weren't using the Speech, the universal language that every creature understood.

“ _Terezi!_ ” a troll yelped. He was short and with stubby horns, and his arms were crossed and his brow was furrowed as if he was perpetually angry. “ _What the actual fucking hell do you think you're doing?!_ ” The troll in question was busying herself by sniffing and occasionally licking the puddles of blood on the ground.

She looked up and grinned a shark tooth smile, licking her lips clean of blood as she straightened up. “ _Investigating, Karkles! What else would I be doing? This wasn't justice. This requires justice._ ”

“ _Hah!_ ” another troll scoffed. He was tall and haughty, with a purple streak through his hair. He was by far the flashiest, with a purple cape and striped scarf and pants. “ _Of course this was justice. It was all lowbloods. Not even a speck of green in the mix, though some would argue that those are hardly worth keeping either._ ” He said it with a sneer and a funny accent, and his remarks instantly set off a round of bickering from the trolls in earshot.

“ _Hey!_ ” a shorter female protested. “ _There's nothing wrong with green blood, Mr. Ampurra!_ ”

“ _I am inclined to agree with Nepeta,_ ” another girl said. “ _Neither my jade nor her green are low enough to be subjected to your nonsensical prejudices._ ”

The four humans watched in bewilderment as the trolls dissolved into a fighting, unorganized mess. The short one was shouting at anyone that would listen – which was absolutely no one. The one with the shark tooth grin went back to sniffing and licking, while others joined in the argument that the haughty troll had started. Above, Rose was busy implementing a translation spell that would transcribe the trolls' words while they weren't using the Speech. She fully intended to go down there and introduce herself, but not until she had a better grasp on their behaviors.

When the spell was complete, she sat and watched as dialog flowed across her manual pages in the elegant curls of the Speech.

“...anything about this, Feferi?”

“No, not at all! The only culling I get excited about is the kind under the sea!”

“This wasn't a culling. This was murder.”

“Chill out, motherfuckers... this ain't that big a deal...”

“YES, it is a big deal. It is a BIG FUCKING DEAL, okay?!”

Rose winced as that line appeared – the matching shout was rather obvious and equally grating. It was about time they went down and intervened. Clearly these trolls were incapable of getting things down without fighting each other. She turned to her friends, who had gathered behind her to watch the translation, and smiled grimly. “I'm going down there. Would any of you like to join me?”

“Oh! I'll go!” Jade exclaimed. “Some of them kinda look like fun! And some of them look kinda familiar, too. I don't know why, though...”

“Well, somebody's gotta keep Harley in check. I guess I can grace these trolls with my presence.”

“Uh, then, okay, I'll go too!” John said after his friends had all chimed in. Rose nodded to herself, as if she had expected nothing less, and tucked her manual away in her otherspace pocket4. The others did the same, and soon the platform was gone and they were on the ground **,** approaching the trolls.

“Um, hi!” John said to the shocked group before realizing his mistake. Twelve pairs of menacing yellow eyes turned his way and he gulped before continuing on in the Speech. “ _Dai stiho!_ Greetings, cousins!We are on errantry and we greet you.”

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so I'm honestly expecting nobody to be in both of these fandoms, so I'm providing footnotes to explain some of the wordier concepts from Young Wizards! My darling beta Stripe helped point out the confusing things. Also this is my first time posting on AO3 so please forgive me any screw-ups.
> 
> 1: Every wizard has some form of access to the wealth of information available on their Art. For most American human wizards, it comes in the form of a book. Of course, with technology, new forms are appearing, such as manuals in laptop form and WizPods. (Guess what kind Dave has?) Every species has their own form of manual, and sometimes the shape it takes varies from culture to culture.
> 
> 2: This is just setting the time from the Young Wizards series. Book 8 focused on an all-out war against the Lone Power, the god that invented entropy and as a result was shunned by his fellow Powers, wherein It used rapidly expanding dark matter to basically rip apart the universe. Every young wizard on Earth gets involved, with about half being sent on leads off-planet. The four kids were in one of the off-planet groups.
> 
> 3: Sevarfrith is an acronym of several speech words that are used to label a planet where wizardry must be practiced in secret. Earth is sevarfrith, and in this story I am making Alternia sevarfrith as well. The opposite of this is astafrith, though I don't think any astafrith worlds will be making an appearance here.
> 
> 4: An otherspace pocket is basically a backpack in another universe. There are rooted pockets, accessible from only one location. There are also attached otherspace pockets, which can be set to always be a set distance from the owner and are accessible from any location. Most wizards have the latter.


End file.
